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By Trying, We Continue in Vein: A Look into Self-Made Patterns

When you are stressed there are many different and amazing things that happen to your body. Your mind controls more than you might want to believe. If we take a deeper look into why we sometimes drop into pourly focused food intake habits we may be able to change them.

"Seed-Stem-Blossom"

First of all, on a physiological level we first have to establish that we want to change our current habits. Habitual thinking is tricky in the sense that the habit itself becomes comfortable, or a refuge we go to in order to find a sense of security. When you take a step away from this you realize that you are doing this in spite of your many diverse effort to change. Habitually comfort thinking is something you can change by a simple means. In order to change this deeply ingrained habit, you must first admit to it. Testament to this; for in the Step Program for alcoholics anonymous you find them first admitting to the fact that they are addicted to drinking. You can find great joy in the feeling of saying, “I _____this!”. A sense of relief may be very apparent with this release as well because the first step in an habitual patter is denial. Denial that you “Don’t have this problem”, or any variation thereof. By deluding yourself you are only doing the harm in which you are denying you have. This circle will first become apparent to you if this pattern is threatened in anyway. You might notice that you start to “change into a different person”. At this juncture, a lot of the time you will turn back to the pattern for comfort – again fueling the pattern once again. So how do we break free of this? Awareness. Awareness of every time you do the pattern will consistently pull you out, like climbing out from the depths of a well via a rope. You must be patient, earnest, and open. For sometimes the urge to follow in the same pattern will be more than you can handle. Just stay aware of what you do throughout the process and see how you can navigate better next time. The navigation might be your next stepping stone. For if you are able to navigate with the tool of awareness skillfully, you will eventually be able to navigate away from your ever accuring pattern based thinking. You might find in time that you will be able to catch a pattern “brewing”. Just like when tea brews, the pot gets hot before it steams. So in this sense, watch for when your pot starts getting hot. Keep in mind that for the more you are open, honest, and aware, the more you will have a chance to direct your intention. The key, you might notice, to all of this is the illumination to your own delusion. For this is what we all strive for, right? We all strive to “escape of the delusion of the world”, or to gain “Enlightened”. Well, the ironic situation you may find yourself in is that the very things you do in order to try to escape delusion, is the very delusion itself. Ultimately, I’ll let you be the explorer of that.

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2 comments

Great post , Thomas:)) I used to go through the same downhill progression of poor eating all the time. Anytime my skin was acting up, I was depressed, angry or anxious, I would turn to food as my main source of comfort. It was always there for me when I needed it, kind of like a drug. It took me a long time to finally realize that I had an addiction…to food. It took me an even longer time to break away from the bad eating habits but I’m just happy that I got away. Have a great time with your family this weekend:))